Source: Authors' analysis of unpublished Total Economy Productivity data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor Productivity and Costs program, Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement microdata, and Murphy and Welch (1989)

Updated May 14, 2012

Documentation and methodology

Productivity data, which measure output per hour of the total economy, including the private and public sectors, are from an unpublished series available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor Productivity and Costs program on request. The wage-level data are based on the authors’ tabulations of Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC, also known as the March CPS) microdata files using a series on annual, weekly, and hourly wages for wage and salary workers. See Appendix B for the sample definition and other information. The weekly and hourly wage data are “hour weighted,” obtained by dividing annual wages by weeks worked and annual hours worked. The 1967 and 1973 values are derived from unpublished tabulations provided by Kevin Murphy from an update of Murphy and Welch (1989); they include self-employment as well as wage and salary workers. The values displayed in this table were bridged from CPS 1979 values using the growth rates in the Murphy and Welch series. Hours of work were derived from differences between annual, weekly, and hourly wage trends.